Menu planning and trying new recipes

The last two weeks at the farm have yielded a nice variety of veggies, not too much of anything, and no preserving required.  I have heard a few people say they have a hard time using up the last bit of veggies each week, often leaving a few scraps here and there.

I must confess that I an often guilty of the same thing, not preserving that half a head of cabbage, and not using it either.  That half a head of cabbage went into the compost yesterday, wilted, dry, and browning on the edges.  Such a thing is sad, especially with a vegetable that keeps so long.  My main goal each week is to menu plan after getting home from the farm each week, listing the veggies we received, and place them under each meal heading so I know I hit every one. 

My menu plan is generally a Saturday to Friday since I tend to grocery shop Saturday mornings.  I leave it loose so that I can make what I feel like that evening, creating easy meals for nights we have things to do.  I also try to use the veggies that spoil easily first, leaving the longer lasting ones to the end of the week.  Last week it looked Mexican heavy, like this:

Black Bean tacos and slaw
Gazpacho and tempeh with corn tortillas and cheese
Grilled Mexican Pizza and salad
Grilled sweet potatoes and black bean burgers
Beet Salad and Squash Pizza
Tofu with Slaw and Mashed Adobo Sweet Potatoes
Chocolate zucchini cookies
Lemon Fennel Sorbet

The tofu and sweet potatoes was a recipe from Tal Ronnen's cookbook, "The Conscious Cook", post to follow shortly ;)

I made pizza dough twice (easy as long as you plan ahead at least an hour), and some lovely cookies.  We didn't have beet salad though as I may have forgot about them in the oven (I did turn the oven off though), and they got a bit moldy.  And we also didn't get to the black bean burgers, Thursday night we had a busy evening that ended up being a Pei Wei evening.  Throw in a lentil salad and there was our week.  We've been eating out a bit too much since getting back from vacation, I have yet to get back into my groove (note that I have only worked out twice since getting back from vacation: fail). 

This week, we got another host of veggies from the farm. 

carrots, beets, eggplant, squash, celery, onion, tomato, strawberries, cantaloupe, purple basil

On the menu for this week:

sweet potatoes with lime vinaigrette and black bean burgers
Asian noodle salad (using tofu, eggplant, carrots, and squash)
huevos y frijoles
lentil daal
potato salad and grilled sausage
beet and white bean salad
heirloom tomato soup, fresh baked baguette and brie